The Leapfrog Group, an employer-based nonprofit coalition advocating for improved transparency, quality and safety in hospitals, has released its Fall 2013 update to The Leapfrog Group Hospital Safety Score.
The update assigns A through F grades to more than 2,500 acute hospitals nationwide using 28 measures gauging their progress in preventing hospital injuries, accidents, infections and errors, which kill more than 40,000 people nationwide annually.
Leapfrog added two new measures to the hospital safety score for the Fall 2013 update, including catheter-associated urinary tract infections and surgical site infection scores.
Key findings of the report include:
• There has been a lack of progress in overall hospital safety scores since last update, with the exception of hospital adoption of computerized physician order entry. Only about 4 percent of hospitals showed dramatic improvements of two or more grades.
• Of the 2,539 hospitals scored, 813 earned an "A," 661 earned a "B," 893 earned a "C," 150 earned a "D" and 22 earned an "F."
• New Hampshire, Arkansas, Nebraska and New Mexico had the smallest percentages of A-grade hospitals. Neither New Mexico nor the District of Columbia had any A-grade hospitals.
• Maine had the highest percentage of A-grade hospitals.
• One-hundred percent of Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser and Norfolk, Va.-based Sentara hospitals earned A-grades.
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